


Death and Disappointment

by HeadcaseCraziness



Category: Dark Souls (Video Games), Dark Souls III
Genre: Character Death, Disappointment, Gen, Introspection, Link the Fire Ending, The Ashen One ends, The ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 19:04:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14900219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeadcaseCraziness/pseuds/HeadcaseCraziness
Summary: The Ashen One does not expect the ending of their story... To say they are dissatisfied with how it ends.It was just them and the First Flame now.





	Death and Disappointment

The end of the journey was upon them, the Unkindled One, the Champion of Ash... they stood before the crumbling Soul of Cinder... it alike every other foe had fallen to their unbridled strength and tenacity. Watching as it faded to dust... to merely ash and finished cinders... To become one as a memory of the First Flame. Its final guardian fallen.  
It was just them and the First Flame now. 

Defeat, death, the absence of any hope itself had not stopped them from trudging forth through the endless trials that was put before them. The armies of now decrepit warriors, powerful tainted Deities, turncoat Princes and senseless Leaders, abhorrent creatures and men whom had simply lost their way. Through poison swamps, undead crypts and castles guarded by dragons... They had striven and thrived.

The First Flame, the dwindling and pitiful thing that it was, barely worthy to be named a flame sat before them. Their destination, the goal was in sight. They would reignite the fading fire and bring the world back the way it was... They had the power of the Lords of Cinder... they would save them all. 

They reached out, ready to give themselves over to the flame, for there to be an explosion as they were engulfed and the endless cycle of unliving to end, for the sky to no longer remain in a frozen eclipse that mirrored the hopelessness of the Darksign.

Their body was to be the fuel alike the countless others before them, as steady fingers thrust into the fellow fire, they waited for the First Flame to leap upon them and devour them in a fiery inferno. 

It did not happen so violently, no explosion of light, no intense burning and them engulfed... The flames crept up their arm... slowly, shyly. Almost as if it rejected the encouragement it was being given. It burned so delicately, they barely felt alight. This was not what they had been told, they had envisioned. 

It wasn’t right! Where was the reversing of the misery that was being caused by the ending flames? Why were they not consumed and charred like The Exiled had spoken of? Nothing was happening? Glancing around, the Kiln was the same, ash and dust under the murky eclipsed sky. The fire continued to travel up their body, creeping like a fog, to slowly envelope them in a shallow flame. A dull, orangey thing. No honoured flame here.

A cry of anguish left their lips as they collapsed to their knees. How had they failed to burn brightly? Was their soul not good enough to fuel the fading flames? Unworthy? Not strong enough even after the strength they had been given? The good graces... the hope?

They stayed there for some time as the the fire burned unhurried, lazily, and dry, old eyes failed to water. Parched sobs echoed around the kiln...  
It ended like it started, a broken Ashen One following the words of the few inhabitants of the world... And they were tricked all along. They were not a saviour. No renewing the Age of Fire. Simply smouldering like weak charcoal that almost refused to burn. Only prolonging the fading light... just a little longer. 

They had failed... 

They just hoped they had allowed some of humanity to die as they wished to. To have helped in some way...

But in their heart, they felt as if they had achieved nothing... this was not strengthening or restarting a failing flame, it was giving it a few extra seconds... 

That wasn’t enough...

Changing to sit as the First Flame slowly burnt through its new energy source, The Chosen Ashen One let their last breathes of life fade as were one with the fire.


End file.
